TALBOT8654

Friday Feb^y 20^th 1863

My dear Henry

I dare say you will be surprized to see that I am already installée – I should not have come so soon into Waiting naturally – only Lady Jocelyn’s son ¹ was ill, & I am taking one week for her at present.

I have been going backwards & forwards from M^t Edgcumbe to Cotehele ² – & have been otherwise extremely busy; else I should have written long ago – first of all to thank you for your letter congratulating me on my appointment – & secondly to wish you & Constance ³ joy of Charles’s ⁴ coming of age – as well as many happy returns of the day to him. Please transmit all my good wishes to him. Has he settled yet about finding an Architect? I hear that Gilbert Scott ⁵ (I believe that is the name.) is going to do up & restore & ornament Wolsey’s chapel here. It is a chapel I have never been into – close to the higher end of S^t George’s Chapel, but not connected with it. The Queen ⁶ intends it to be a memorial chapel to the Prince. ⁷

I came on Wednesday, when there happened to be 3 or 4 guests at Dinner, (the 2^nd time only that anyone has been invited) with the Princesses – but not the Queen, who never dines in public – & she very kindly excused my going down – But in the evening she sent for me into the Prince’s little Sittingroom, where she sits a great deal now – I sat a long time with H.M. alone – & you cannot think how good & kind & dear she was! & so sympathetic!

She is not very well, & feels much fatigued always – having so much more to do than she had; & says her nerves are quite shattered. I felt so very sorry for her. I left Ernestine ⁸ at Mount Edgcumbe – but they are all coming up to London tomorrow I believe – Where I shall join them on Tuesday, when my Waiting ends. I believe Katie ⁹ will be presented at the next Drawingroom, on the 28^th & perhaps Ernestine too – but the Queen told me I need not attend it.

I was so much obliged to Constance for sending me the Wiltshire paper containing the account of the Laycock festivities. But it was a very sad moment unfortunately – just after poor Lord Lansdowne’s ¹⁰ death. Were you surprized? I was not, after the great change I observed in him the last two or three times I saw him – I liked what the Times ¹¹ said – & there was a good article in the Western morning news too – mentioning the connection of our families & my marriage at Bowood ¹² – I hope you are all well at Edinburgh – Ernestine had a letter not long ago from Rosamond, ¹³ in w^ch she mentioned M^r Clark’s ¹⁴ enforced absence from home. I hope he has been allowed to get away at last. Great preparations are making in S^t George’s Chapel for the P^e of Wales’s ¹⁵ marriage I saw him yesterday, & Pss Alice ¹⁶ grown so handsome – Love to all

Y^r aff^te Sister
Caroline